Tuesday, December 9, 2014

I’ve never liked going to the dentist. Kramer from Seinfeld
would call me an anti-dentite and he’d be right.
After leaving the dentist’s office on Monday morning, I figured I’d stop by
Restaurant Depot on the way back to the office and pick up another 50 pound bag of pizza flour. You know, a reward for being so well behaved at the dentist.

I went with a 50 pound bag of Full Strength
flour. For those keeping score at home, the last bag was Hummer Flour, and the first bag was All Trumps. I had forgotten Restaurant Depot carried Royal Oak lump charcoal so I grabbed a bag
of that too. Roaming the aisles, I picked up a few more things. The last thing I grabbed was a package of 50 small pizza to-go boxes. I was probably giggling a
little when I took them off the shelf and just thinking about them now makes me
smile. Whenever I daydream about making pizzas at home in a wood oven, I also
imagine sliding a fresh pie into a box and having one of the girls walk or bike
a pizza to a neighbor. A small, in-neighborhood pizza delivery
service. Wouldn’t that be great?

I figured this outdoor closet that we have would be a good
place to keep the boxes. Our basement has filled up surprisingly quickly. As I
was walking toward the closet, a contractor putting new gutters on my neighbor’s
house looked down from his ladder and saw me with 50 pizza boxes over my
shoulder. He started a conversation asking about my gutters which we both
agree suck. He explained a little about his gutter system and I said I was
planning to replace the gutters when the roof gets re-shingled. I’m hoping to 5
more years out of what’s currently up there. He offered to leave me some
information on the gutters and I said I give it a look.

Then he said, “That’s a lot of pizza boxes. Do you own a pizzeria?”

“No, not yet.”

“Six years ago someone would ask me if I had a contracting company and I’d
say 'not yet' but now I do and it’s the greatest.”

He continued to tell me about his company and I suddenly realized that my response kind of made it sound like I was actively working towards
owning a pizzeria. You don't need a psych degree to analyze my quick, subconscious response. While it is true I occasionally go through Craigslist and
look at local pizza shops and equipment for sale (doesn't everybody?), these
pizza boxes were more of a smile than a business plan.

I doubt not yet will ever turn into yes, but I should be ready…just in case. I should probably stop typing and make some dough.

About Me

I've always be interested in cooking. I once thought about it as a career. In the end, I decided to go into bridge engineering and throw dinner parties whenever the mood struck. The hours are a little better.
For the past few years, pizza has been kind of an obsession.